Saturday, August 30, 2014

I did say we'd have a logo for this feature, and here it is. I also said it would be an occasional series, and I fully expected this to be the case... except yesterday, I got lucky. REALLY, REALLY LUCKY.

Things I did not expect to see This Year #12

I've been farming for Skyshards with a measure of seriousness for several months. There have been many, MANY days when I've had nothing to show for my efforts except a huge pile of cash, which has been at least for me one of the reasons why I've kept farming. I have concentrated my efforts on the Mogu, for the Ancient Guo Lai Cache Keys they drop and the loot those inevitably contain, and it has been a very profitable endeavour. Yesterday morning I decided I'd have a go at getting closer to my total, as I'd gotten to eight Shards. Two dropped in a fifteen minute period. I've gone weeks without seeing one drop at all. It just goes to show that random is, indeed, random.

This still seems odd.

Trapping Alani with the Sky Crystal wasn't hard, and I didn't need a group to do it. I still have a bit of a problem killing a mount to receive the same (why can't we tame them like Hunters do?) but in the end, the job is done, and we're a step closer to the magic 250.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present you with Mount #215:

Backdrop is everything :D

What this does now do is present me with some interesting decisions concerning my next farm of choice. Undoubtedly the biggest advantage to Alani was the amount of money I made whilst doing it, which most certainly won't be the case with anything else on my 'attainable solo' list. Currently I am doing my best to 'farm' the following as often as resets/mobs allow:

Razzashi Raptor (Zul'Gurub)

Ashes of Al'ar (Tempest Keep)

Azure Drake (Malygos)

Blue Proto Drake (Utgarde Pinnacle)

Onyxian Drake (Onyxia's Lair)

Slate Primordial Direhorn (Warbringers)

Thundering Onyx Cloud Serpent (Huolon)

However, none of these are the 'continuous' farm that Alani was so I may actually have to start considering some new ways to make cash as a result of this avenue now becoming of less significance. Needless to say, these seven are enough of an issue with the RNG as a factor for me to know that I'll be keeping myself occupied for some time. There is then the issue of what Meta Achievements I might reasonably be able to complete in the next few weeks with some help:

A whole lotta Doable.

There's a lot of stuff that could be done in this Department, truth be told, and the fallow period between Expansions is a great time in which to do it. Remind me to get my arse in gear on this front (I've got possibilities in Cataclysm and Wrath to tick off) and see if any of these are actually completable...

Friday, August 29, 2014

But that's where we come back to what's at stake: rotational mechanics, the ineffable, partly conscious element of the game summarized as "fun." World of Warcraft is going on a decade, and sometimes milestones like that have effects beyond the immediate. People are hitting 30, or 40, and they look back and reassess why they play; and it isn't limited to what's tangible or rational.

Players who are not well-versed in game design, or haven't followed every detail and discussion of the beta, may not understand exactly why the game doesn't feel like it used to, or how it did when they were having the most fun and feeling capable. They may not be able to explain why playing on their character, or any of their alts, isn't really . . . "fun" anymore.

I don't think that this beta's design fixated on simplism is on the level of early Cataclysm. I do think it's more insidious, though, and will be harder to identify. Ultimately, though, I see it as a forced error, and a shortcoming for an expansion that otherwise has the most promise in more than 5 five years.

It isn't that often I'm compelled by a post on the Warcraft forums to make a post, but this has been an extraordinary week for this part of the Internet 'World'. I've read several serious commentators pronouncing that we're at a crossroads, a tipping point, that 'gaming' should never be a place where people should feel threatened or scared to exist within. There's a week's worth of arguments to pour through, if you feel the urge. For many people, playing games has stopped being fun.

That's why the above struck me so strongly this week, because if you can't even agree on a simple definition, you're already in a ton of trouble.

The OP has decided, as the central point of his post on what Blizzard is doing to the game's mechanics, is a particular concept of 'fun': of course, this is also part of Blizzard's argument. If you are going to play this game, it needs to be less like wading through treacle and more intuitive, sensible and with less choice and more result. Just for the record at this juncture, I feel I need to wheel the dictionary definition of 'fun' in here just as a point of order, both in noun and adjectival form:

So, in this case I am sensing the crux of this argument is simple: the OP believes that by dumbing down the system, the game becomes less enjoyable for them. I understand this, and I also grasp the need to constantly refining a gaming experience as the abilities and tastes of your audience change. More interesting to me however is one particular line in the OP's post: 'People are hitting 30, or 40, and they look back and reassess why they play; and it isn't limited to what's tangible or rational. ' This isn't general fun we're talking about, rather the 'fun' of a very specific age group, those who have 'grown up' with the game since its inception... except this isn't the whole audience. It's not even close. My son is a great example of someone who's grown up with the game. He's almost 14, and had his first character to play alongside Dad and me when he was five. That Hunter's now doing Progression content, and one of the overriding factors I've seen in my son's development is that 'fun' has absolutely NOTHING to do with the buttons he's pressing, and EVERYTHING to do with the people he's playing with. If those people decide to bring prejudices and narrow minded outlooks to the table, then we're all doomed.

Also Fun. From New York City.

'Fun' is now a smoking gun for the gaming industry: anything (or indeed anyone) seen to be 'upsetting' the enjoyment of others is going to be held up for ridicule, perhaps even abuse, and often for a slew of completely unacceptable and unrealistic reasons. The old will blame youth, youth will blame the old, sex will become the ultimate weapon to degrade and reinforce particular decision and individuals on both sides. In all of this, the *actual* fun in gaming is being symptomatically destroyed, and the content that is being produced is becoming increasingly tainted by the arguments that surround them. The people who play the games are destroying the fun by over-analysing, by arguing and accusing, when it is exactly them who are responsible for making the environment we exist within both entertaining and compelling by existing in the player base. The key factor many simply fail to grasp is simple: fun is utterly subjective. As you grow old, things alter, and it isn't just that your game has changed. You do too.

Local fun. DOUGHNUTS.

The argument about 'dumbing down' Warcraft we started this post with? Have to say, I utterly agree with the point, but totally disagree this makes thing less fun as a result. You see, fun for me is the grinding and the achievements and the Battle Pets and the Professions and that already puts me in the minority to begin with. That's what it says on the Twitter description, right next to the word 'WOMAN' because I get pretty annoyed so many people seem to think I'm a man. I'm here for the Minority Interests in Warcraft and as little flack as I can kop, which might make some people wonder why I'd actually care if people don't grasp my gender from the word go. There's a particular Tweet in the Polygon post I'd like to highlight at this point, if I may, just to prove this point: since the post was published the account holder has protected their tweets, but the gist is basically this: No women gave a f**k about gaming pre 2005./looks at almost forty years of gaming experience and shakes her head.
Certain sectors of this community are not doing ANYONE any favours, including themselves.

I'd like to hope that with the Expansion that follows in (checks countdown timer) 75 days, people can stop fixating on what constitutes their own very specific form of fun and maybe, just maybe, extend their range a bit. Maybe we can get the people who say nothing because it isn't their problem to actually start taking some notice as well. If we could just take away the smoking guns, people would all be so much happier and gaming could be fun in a more general sense for EVERYONE, regardless of how they live their lives when they're not playing. It is up to those of us who refuse to be beaten down and silenced to hold our heads high and press for gaming to be just that, games we enjoy.

I get pressing less buttons isn't fun. But in the general scheme of things, it isn't just one definition we have to worry about any more.

I am hideously behind on all things Garrison shaped, and this makes me sad.

This is only a short post, a wee thing, because I want to have a fully working and useful Garrisons Guide to refer to once the Expansion hits, I'm just not being paid to do this. That's a key factor that needs to be reiterated for my benefit as much as everyone else's: this isn't my job, and at some point summat normally has to give. I am hoping that this weekend I'll have an opportunity to dive back into Beta properly, and we can make some distinct and useful upgrades to the Guide as it stands.

I just wanted to say I've not forgotten about this commitment, and I intend to have a living, breathing weekly Guide to all things Garrison for as long as the feature remains in game.

Thursday, August 28, 2014

This is the time around this Blog where nostalgia is a pretty safe bet. There are those who call this the Doldrums, that 'difficult bit' between the last Expansion and the next, when we're waiting for the Big Push, the Crossover Event to galvanise everyone and to pull the World back to Warcraft. This is also the time of year when far too many capital letters get tossed about and people tend to lose their rags far easier than normal because, DAMMIT, when's it time for new stuff?

This isn't about the New, not just yet, This is very much the old, the catchup, the organise yourself before it all changes period of time we're existing within. However, as you go back to do this, the past inevitably catches up with you, and so it was yesterday that I went to Karazhan with the Horde Hunter to pick up items for the Horde Rogue who is levelling Enchanting and Tailoring in anticipation of having a fully working Garrison on both Factions to write about for my Guide. The thing is, you see, once upon a time it wasn't just about us having all our content in one place where you couldn't exploit it before the Expansion hit. Karazhan had been in the game files since launch, and when the area around it suddenly became populated, the game was afoot.

That's why I was farming it before TBC hit, in a five man group as it was the only way we could survive the mobs themselves.

The Master's Cellar.

We ended up under Karazhan, an area where it appeared Blizzard hadn't closed off to traffic. It didn't matter that there wasn't any XP to be had, or that we'd necessarily have nothing to show for our efforts. In the end, Netherweave Cloth became a commodity that I'd never considered anyone would care about, but when I sold the stack I'd earnt in our first farming session for 200g I realised that pre-expansion gathering was big business. I also found myself thinking that actually, this was plain wrong, that there was something fundamentally dishonest about killing these mobs when the expansion they belonged to wasn't even live. However, that first evening still burns bright in my memory as one of those moments when a Game stops being just a series of pixels and becomes something else. It was also the night when the one cloth wearer we took with us, a Priest, became one of the luckiest people on the Server.

We'd not expected anything of value to drop, least of all a L68 Blue Staff.

Memory Issues...?

This is where memory, history and the inevitable tweaking that happens in Warcraft all combine to make my story and what appears to be the truth diverge. I'm 99% certain this was the Staff our Priest took away with her, but yet it is marked as a L70 item. I know this because it shares the model with the Headmaster's Charge which still remains one of the most iconic weapons in game for people of a certain age. Add to this that this particular item became one of THE most prized caster weapons pre-Kara, and I wonder at what point the L68 requisite stuck in my head. It is a decade ago, after all, but that evening remains special because, for the first time ever, I fought in a five man outside an Instance. We used a Group to kill mobs that were too high for us to challenge alone.

I also killed things that no-one else would kill until the first Warcraft Expansion went live, and at the time that really was a very big deal.

Memories of times past.

The game world today is a long way from those early adventures. I only have to look at my Twitter feed to understand just how much has changed in the intervening period, and a great deal of it isn't good at all. However, the past is capable of teaching us a great deal in this regard: grouping, playing as a team and knowing who your friends are is as important today as it was back then, even if your Server is no longer the bastion of friendship and reputation it once was. I realise sometimes that perhaps I am a little too old-fashioned in my outlook in this regard: friends are wherever you can find them in game, and expanding your horizons is healthy. Look for new places to farm and explore, and when you return to the old parts of the Gaming World take a moment to explore them and understand their significance in the wider context of your gameplay, not simply as another place to farm stuff to sell.

Remember that for many of us, these are the places where our adventures first began.

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Tom Chilton's become Blizzard's Poster Boy in the past couple of weeks, with a slew of interviews at Gamescon, and the difficult task of answering the tough questions ('why was the Expansion so late' seems to have been the #1 squirmer of choice.) In his latest interview with Icy Veins, there are some interesting concepts that appear: the fact that it appears that there has been discussions regarding how lower level content could be altered to effectively 'homogonise' old quest areas, that the look of the game will continue to be improved over time (and presumably as resources allow.) For me, the line 'the garrison feature turned into a bigger thing than we expected it to be' is probably one of the largest understatements of the entire interview but it does bring home the point that pretty much this thing's been built since March despite being a clear idea from well before last year's Blizzcon. Oh yes, and talking of that, there's that tweet above from this line of interview:

Quality is the most important thing, so if we have to make a choice between getting you something two months ago or getting you a great expansion in November, the choice is obvious. I think we are in a better position now for the future, we already have zones in production for our next expansion. So, if things go well, there will be less of a gap.

Now, I may joke about the fact we'd get a 'new' Expansion confirmed before the old one releases, but actually it is already happening. Mr Chilton has, in other interviews, alluded to areas players cannot yet visit that may well be available to them in the 'Multiverse' but at some later date. Keeping players in this Multiverse is, as we have discussed already, conducive to current and indeed possible future events. It makes perfect sense that if Warcraft is going to mirror stuff in the Movie that this foreshadowing also needs to be prepared well in advance, and that the player base need to be primed for maximum attention. Blizzcon is a PERFECT place at which to do this. There's been a year of Blizzard faffing while everyone got up to speed, and what is becoming apparent is that deliberately stage managing events is far easier as a means to ensure that you get what you want from circumstances than it ever was. That's probably a lot to do with why the 'Launch Event' was as frustrating to some players as it was enlightening to others.

A deliberate exercise in Stage Management.

What I suspect we're going to see a lot of in the weeks that follow is a simple mantra: 'assume your audience knows nothing.' Exposition is going to be the key, and although this may well frustrate many who have been listening to every scrap of news going since early December, it has an overriding benefit. Assuming your audience hasn't been paying attention and knows nothing means that you can deliberately focus on the positives: plot, features and changes. Blizzcon will, I suspect, act as an introduction to Warlords, explaining exactly what has changed and what you'll be able to do when the Expansion hits the following week, but at the same time there'll be some very deliberate foreshadowing of what is to come, and the announcement we won't be leaving the Multiverse for a while yet, because let's face it, there's so much we can now do 'for the first time' in the ALTERNATE Draenor.

Needless to say, you may not get to know the Big Bad for the NEXT Expansion at Blizzcon, but I can guarantee you'll be treated to plenty of hints as to where we're going next, and I'll put a small bag of gold we won't move out of the Multiverse to get there.

In for the Long Haul...?

If I was selling the NEXT Expansion, this is how I'd do it. Got your tin-foil hats pushed on tight? Okay then, let's go: we've killed all of the Hellscreams in all of the flavours by the end of Warlords, but yet there's still a villain to pursue, one that we have discovered is capable of escaping through time to do so. Here we are, in a wonderfully rendered new World, and frankly as we're a pair of 'exploration and conquest as default' bunch of races, it would be rude not to further explore the Draenor we've discovered, and (most importantly of all) discover the OTHER ALTERNATE PLACES THIS DRAENOR HAS ACCESS TO. This conveniently makes us all ignore the Old World, which Blizzard can then either decide ceases to exist at some point in the future and replaces with a completely rebooted 'alternate' Azeroth for a future expansion, or chooses to completely update while we're away and uses as the basis as an old/new Continent as a selling point for yet another Expansion, depending on how people react to Nostalgia in the next three years.

Either way, Alternate is the new Expansion. Watch this space for further developments :D

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

I make no claims to be a Mistress of Gold Making, but I get by well enough. I won't guarantee you 1 MEELION GLODS by following my 5 Simple Tips either, because I'm not that kind of player. I don't see this game as a potential source of income, it's just pixels. However, I'm not stupid. I get where the money comes from. I understand that selling stuff makes you a useful in-game wage. The difference I think between me and the people who are out there trying to exploit it and others is just that. I have no desire to exploit. I just want the cash to buy stuff, to make a living.

It is T-minus 78 days until Warlords, and it is time to start considering how I make some money to pay my bills until the Expansion.

THEY ARE THE SAME.

This screenie from my good mate @yoco68 when it became apparent in Beta that all the AH's were merging in Warlords made the process of where I make my money largely academic. Selling will become a universal constant, and the only downside to this is the process of money transfer will become a wee bit more complicated than it is. Cash, if I didn't know it already, is going to be king on both sides of the Faction divide, so it's probably an idea that I set myself up with a sensible nestegg before the Expansion hits for both Alliance AND Horde, as I'll no longer be able to transfer goods and services between the two with any measure of certainty. That means, at least for me, a number of key requirements to exist on my toons, namely:

A way to gather raw materials (mining, skinning, herbalism) on both Factions for basic income.

A way to produce bags and enchants (and therefore disenchant) on both Factions.

A way to open Lockboxes on both Factions.

This means I have a 90 Rogue thanks to my second account's 90 Boost that came with the Expansion pre-order, who is currently levelling Tailoring and Enchanting and making a decent living from it by specialising on bags for sale. She's being provided with raw materials by my 90 Hunter who is a LW/Mining combo, and who is specifically farming dungeons/areas with a strong bias for those gathering abilities to grab extra materials for sale. This will (hopefully) keep a steady stream of income incoming on the Horde side leading up to the Expansion.

Then there is the issue of Spirits of Harmony going bind-free at 6.0.

Growing your Nestegg is SRS BNS

I'm sitting on a fairly substantive number of Spirits thanks to Skyshard farming in the Vale. As yet I'm still not sure how to convert them to their best advantage, but I am considering throwing a stack or two to my Alchemist for Living Steel and stockpiling a couple of Engineering mounts (because the 250 Mount Achievement's gonna be a BIG THING.) Then I could make cloth for HUGE BAGS (which are selling very well on my Server) or even use them in a last hurrah to construct leg armour. The Vale is generally an extremely productive area for farming, especially in the quiet early mornings I tend to now have time to be online. I've spent an hour this morning farming Ghost Iron Ore there, for instance, and although I am certain it is not the most productive area in which to do it the presence of the Rare Spawns and every mob with a chance to drop a Skyshard/Cache Key makes it a very attractive base of operations for at least one Hunter for the foreseeable future.

Then it is just a case of deciding who does what.

The Sign is a Lie.

There is no right and wrong way to make Gold. There is only the way that works best for you. Whether that's adapting or simply copying someone else, it doesn't matter. The process of making money needs to be something you feel comfortable with, and that isn't a contest or a race. In the end, it is only pixels, and until Blizzard make it that I can pay my sub with it, it has no real relevance beyond my confidence in the ability to produce it successfully. I'm not here to show off how good I am at it either, but I am making it while I can, while the sun shines, at every possible opportunity. You may feel free to laugh at me because, in your eyes, I'm doing it wrong... but you know what, I don't really care. I'm not here to impress you or pretend I'm something I'm not.

It is just pixels when it comes to making gold, and frankly everything else is largely irrelevant.

Monday, August 25, 2014

I dunno if anyone else has noticed, but this is the last week in August.

Those of you paying attention will see that I've added a Countdown Timer to the Site, and that we are at T Minus 79 Days and Counting until Warlords. Of course, it will be considerably less days until we see the 6.0 Adjustment Client, so what this all means is a swift kick up the backside this week on several fronts, especially when related to extracting the digit and getting stuff organised.

Things are going to Vanish. POOF!

REMINDER #1: Things are Going Away.

The following dungeons are completely remodelled in Warlords:

Blackfathom Deeps

Razorfen Krawl

Razorfen Downs

Upper Blackrock Spire

This will mean certain things you can do right now you won't be able to do in Warlords (like tame the Ghost Pig above from the Downs.) So, if you are the kind of person that will kick yourself for not doing shizzle like this, get a move on. No, really, I'VE BEEN WARNING YOU SINCE ALPHA DROPPED and that was MONTHS ago. No excuses ^^

Oh yeah, and this also means Garrosh Achievements and Challenge Modes. GET TO IT.

One less Instance to farm? CHECK.

REMINDER #2: Plenty of Organisation can be done RIGHT NOW.

Wowhead have a list of items that will fit in your Toybox (currently 195 'toys' and counting) if you are one of those people who likes to get ahead of the curve. There is plenty of organisation that can be done to move totals towards, for instance, 250 Mounts for the NEXT Achievement in that series (see above.) A bit of time with pencil and paper and your data-mining site of choice could reap significant reward once the Expansion hits, especially if you find yourself at a bit of a loss for things to do right now. The key here is to use the fallow time as a benefit, especially if it means farming items that are particularly hard to obtain during busy periods.

You see, organisation need not make you feel like your game is a job. It can be fun too :D

And now, a word from our Sponsors.

REMINDER #3: Still Time for #10Years10Questions

I thought I'd throw this one in under the 'Enlightened Self-Interest' Category. You still have time to answer these questions and undergo some Pre-Expansion catharsis if you haven't already.

If your numbers seem a bit large, your add-on may not be operating correctly ^^

REMINDER #4: Addon Checkin!

A great many changes are coming to the game, including changes to areas such as stats, health and class abilities. Addons will stop working, and it is probably not a bad idea to work out which of your favourites is being actively updated to work in 6.0 because you won't want to be doing this when the game goes live, especially if you're a raider. This might also be an opportune moment to look at your UI and have a bit of a redesign because, like it or not, everyone is going to get some spaces on their bars. Being prepared is half the battle, after all.

The old ones are still... well, the oldest :D

REMINDER #5: Time for Bed.

If, like me, you run a large family of alts, it may well be time to start thinking about who's actually going to get played once the Expansion hits. I already have a plan, and what this now means is putting all the non-essential personnel away to be ready to start earning Rested XP as soon as the Expansion hits. this also means with the knowledge that Justice and Valor are gonna vanish forever that there's a lot of benefit to front loading your alts with a full set of Daily Quests before that happens.

I'll have an explanatory post on THAT later in the week.

==

If you wanna know what I'll be doing this week, and pretty much every week until November, then there you have it. Keep your eyes peeled in the weeks that follow for specifics, more helpful Guides and suggestions, and an ever-increasing enthusiasm for the Winter Months.

Sunday, August 24, 2014

I've been a Mount Collector since before Wrath, I'll be honest. The Argent Tournament was probably when my desire to own things to ride on outstripped the apathy/issues that surround this being a game and not Real Life and it became MORE than just a passing desire. In fact, if I'm honest, this expansion was the one when the Time Lost Proto Drake appeared and for the first (and last) time in my Warcraft life I actually camped things, largely unsuccessfully. It then occurred to me that, if I was going to do the whole collecting thing, there were going to need to be some Sanity Rules put in place, not simply for me. No camping, no stupid sums of money spent, no doing things that negatively impact on the Real World.

Simple rules, but they serve me well.

165 Dungeon Runs. Not all concurrent.

The key has always been 'not all at once' because I've never been in that kind of relationship with the game to begin with. It is always about making the most of a moment, or capitalising on some free time, but the Mounts have become increasingly difficult to capture alone. Tying them to World and Instance Bosses is, of course, a great way to promote the longevity of that particular content, but for the solo player it does mean that you are restricted by your own ability. That is as frustrating as it is liberating, especially when presented with mechanics that, even after you outgear content, will kill you regardless. For me, it is simple. I accept some mounts I will never own, and I move on. This would hugely frustrate those who believe that the only obstacle to owning everything is patience and time, but I would counter that in any collection, there must be a limit. You need to know when to stop.

I used to collect things, and it nearly bankrupted me. I have learnt that lesson too.

Recruit a Friend. Acceptable Expense ^^

When Blizzard announced the 250 Mount Achievement, it wasn't a surprise, and I was already planning, because that is the very nature of Collecting. It never stops until you decide you're done. Collecting is infinite, as old as the Universe itself, because as long as people exist to make things, there will be those who collect, for whatever reason. The only arbiter of completion, ultimately, is yourself. 250 for me is eminently doable without having to resort to a massive lifestyle change, it can be planned and executed well, and I am in a position to prepare several characters to do the job which does at least increase the chances of a drop. For me, part of the process now isn't the actual mounts, but organising around them. How I can make extra money, planning the most efficient routes between kill points... which is probably why camping for me is such a terrible waste of time and effort. However attractive the reward, the cost is simply too great to swallow.

For everything there must be an acceptable reward.

Crafting FTW.

This has been a four mount week: three from crafting and one from a run I've done hundreds of times since TBC. The trick with collecting is to be realistic and have a sense of humour. I call it the 'Circuit of Disappointment' for a reason, after all. There are always days, weeks when you have nothing to show for your eforts but every time the total ticks up, then there's progress, forward momentum. That's the key. Moving ahead. Attaining the goal. Not going insane.

Outfit & Tanking Pet matches Mount? CHECK.

Ride a White Horse will become another off/on feature on the Blog as we move into Warlords. My current Mounts Owned total is 214. That's thirty-six to find to hit the next rest point... ^^